Welcome to ReefCentral.
Because of the sheer size of our forum, we've been forced to limit selling and trading to members who've met a couple of criteria. (If you're seeing this message, you haven't met them yet.) Please take a moment to acquaint yourself with our selling/trading rules to help make your stay a long and rewarding one.
Selling and trading on ReefCentral.

You surely understand not everyone around the world has access to a microscope, can afford to get one or simply has the time to go out, shop for, learn how to use and take a decent photo with a microscope.

In my case it's simply far easier just to reboot the whole tank.

I have used the method described in this thread to identify dinoflagellates with very consistent results. It doesn't necessarily help identify between different types of dinos but it should help differentiate between dinoflagellates and cyanobacteria which seem to be the most commonly confused.

Once dinoflagellates are confirmed I've personally had a 100% success rate with the kalkwasser (elevate pH) method described here. The major drawback to using kalkwasser is your dKH will likely increase a bit despite turning off dosing pumps and calcium reactors (mine goes up about 1-3 dKH during a treatment). But realistically, if your tank is being overran by dinos a high dKH is probably the least of your concerns.

My dinos went away after I added an ato. In that ato I run kalkwasser. I also ran the dirty method and fed heavy removed gfo and carbon . I am now at 12 months dino free. I never removed the sandbed which has been there since 1997. But I added macro algea from 4 different tanks. To help with diversity. Not sure which method helped or a combo of all. This was after a 3 year battle.

... dinoflagellates and cyanobacteria which seem to be the most commonly confused.

Once dinoflagellates are confirmed I've personally had a 100% success rate with the kalkwasser (elevate pH) method

The dino clump up id method was described in this thread very early on by myself.
Since then my dinos do not behave that way any more so it's not a good method if you need to be certain.

I've also gone the Kalkwasser route with all the evaporated water replaced as Kalkwasser and it does not work for Ostreopsis.
Microscope is the way to go and there is a high chance of identifying the type of dinoflagellates at the same time.

Dinos and Cyano look very different in a microscope and are also easy with a little practice with the naked eye.

Well I'm confident in saying that's not diatoms. Movement does look like Ostreopsis unfortunately.

Many of us are trying the 'dirty method' which essentially just means letting your nitrate and phosphate creep up to or slightly above reef normal values. You can do this by feeding heavily, feeding phyto, removing GFO, cranking your skimmer down/off, stopping all water changes and dosing. (I have O. ovata and I can't keep N above 0 without actually dosing it. Adding copepods is often helpful. I leave carbon in since my Ostreopsis are definitely toxic.

No reason you can't combine the above with high pH, assuming you have a doser. Blackouts are rarely curative on their own but you may get results combining a short blackout with raising N and P.

They didnt pop up in my tank until after I had gotten the GHA under control. After that they moved in pretty quick, but the tank is relatively new. So far what I've done, as of yesterday, is pulled my GFO reactor, set the skimmer to a drier setting....I'm planning on going with the "dirty" method, picked up a couple packs of pods from the LFS, and began a 3 day blackout. Started all of this at the same time yesterday, and I know that the blackout isn't very effective against dinos, I'm hoping with the pods and lack of GFO it might help a little bit. Oh, and I got a couple lb rock from their system in hopes of adding some beneficial bacteria that their system had that mine didnt.

I've pretty much spent the last couple days reading this thread, and I was trying to go to sleep but started thinking about the dinos. Thats saying something right there lol. I've got a problem. Anyway, the idea hit me and I'm not sure how effective it'd be, but I wanted to run it by you guys. Basically, with the dirty method, what we're trying to do is allow the Dinos competition to grow and out compete them for nutrients, as well as introduce pods and bacteria in hopes that will work as well.

Before the Dinos hit, I was planning on setting up my tank for a lot of SPS. Now I'm battling this, and luckily I had only gotten two SPS frags so far. Assuming we are talking the dirty method here, do you guys think it would be beneficial to add a product like Acropower? Everything I've read on this product says if its used in a higher nutrient tank, which is what we're trying to accomplish with the "dirty method," be prepared for an algae bloom and even cyano. I was thinking it might be useful to encourage other algae to grow and out compete the dinos.

On the other hand, whatever snake oil is in this acropower stuff could just be like steroids for the dinos and make them grow faster than ever.

I don't use Acropower, but I do use Restor. I had a dying coral I got from a friend and I believe this stuff saved it. Then I got a tankfull of suffering corals and almost all recovered - again, I believe it was due to this stuff.

So - here's a little hint - Algae is not bad. It's good. In fact, it's great. I've been using an ATS and exporting excess nutrients but feeding my tank constantly.

Here's a couple of threads from a former dino sufferer - FEED YOUR REEF, FEED IT (spoken with an Irish accent like the guy who advertises "feed your lawn, feed it").

It's not really dirty if you export the excess and it's healthy if the biofauna in the algae promotes health.

It's the difference between being a weakling who never goes outside - or an athlete who goes out and gets dirty, then takes a shower to get clean. Both are clean in the end, but which one is healthier?

Update from post #2316: I dosed 6 doses even though after the 5th dose they were gone. No more Dinos 12/09/15-12/26/15. 2 days after last dose I did a 10% WC, Carbon and back to feeding my corals and fish like before. Lighting scheduled was slowly ramped back from all blues to every color I have lol. Nothing died. I'll keep updating periodically. My only regret was that I didn't identify which one I had to further help the cause. I hope my posts help much.

I'm glad you got rid of what was bothering you, but I looked at your previous posts and I can't find your success useful for others due to lack of information on type of dinos or if it was even dinos you got rid of.

Did you post any images before the treatment besides from the jar ones?

I stated in the last post #2369, "My only regret was that I didn't identify which one I had to further help the cause". I was tired of the Dino getting worse, smothering my frags and killing my inverts. So instead of buying a magnifying glass, I bought Dino X. Post #2245 have a few pics that I posted. I posted my experience and method I used.

I stated in the last post #2369, "My only regret was that I didn't identify which one I had to further help the cause". I was tired of the Dino getting worse, smothering my frags and killing my inverts. So instead of buying a magnifying glass, I bought Dino X. Post #2245 have a few pics that I posted. I posted my experience and method I used.

Too early to tell yet, but I believe that Dino x has given me the upper hand on a battle that's lasted months. I reduced the lighting period back to 6 hrs a day and I'm dosing per the instructions. I haven't seen a trace of Dinos in about 2 weeks now. I used to see them about 15 mins after lights on, but not any more.